Type: Policy
Classification: Operational
Policy Number: SCS2024007
Released: 1 March 2024
Review Date: 1 March 2027
Replaces: RE201801-1.0

In their pastoral letter Catholic Schools at a Crossroads the Bishops of NSW and the ACT challenged educational leaders and staff to dedicate themselves to ensuring that our schools:

• Are truly Catholic in their identity and life
• Are centres of the ‘new evangelisation’
• Enable our students to achieve high levels of Catholic religious literacy
• Are led and staffed by people who will contribute to these goals.

This policy endeavours to address and meet this challenge.

The distinctive character of the Catholic school is that it is a community animated by the spirit of the Gospel. The choice to work in Catholic education brings both a privilege and a challenge…”It demands a special commitment of caring service to students, parents and colleagues within the mission of the Church” (Workplace Realities in the Catholic School, p11).

“Teachers in Catholic schools, then, are in a most privileged position. It is they who can provide vital guidance and support to parents and students, and instill in them a sense of the Gospel challenge to acknowledge God’s integral place in their lives to believe in [his] Word. This challenge demands certain essential qualities. It requires careful preparation, a facility for reflection, and a constant readiness for professional renewal and conversion of heart. Such teachers bring to their task an extraordinary giftedness and a profound sense of mission which significantly impacts on their school communities, on their students and on their own effectiveness.”

The Privilege and the Challenge: the Teacher in the Catholic School, p6; (cf The Catholic School, n78; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, n22; Declaration on Christian Education, n8)

It is the responsibility of all who work, teach and lead in Catholic schools to “nurture a partnership in faith, hope …